This invention relates generally to a method of using and a composition of a physiologically active protein mixture which exhibits a variety of disparate properties, such as facilitating wound healing and influencing glucose metabolism. More particularly, the invention relates to a composition which is derivable from liver and has the ability to increase glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis. It also exhibits pronounced superoxide dismutase activity.
The preparation of extracts from liver has gained the attention of many workers, largely because of the great number of biologically active materials present in liver. The extraction process of the present invention is similar in its initial steps to the process described in the article by Mohamed and Greenberg (Archives of Biochemistry, 8:349, 1945) for the derivation of the enzyme arginase but the present method makes use of a supernatant liquid which is discarded according to the procedure of Mohamed and Greenberg. Furthermore, the protein of the present invention exhibits physiological activity entirely different from liver arginase.
Very few agents exist which facilitate the absorption of energy sources, such as glucose, into the cells. Most proteins inhibit glucose uptake. One of the few proteins which facilitates glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis is insulin. There is a need for additional proteins manifesting these two properties in combination.
Superoxide dismutases are a group of enzymes believed to catalytically scavenge the superoxide radical, which appears to be an important agent of the toxicity of oxygen. See Fridovich "Superoxide Dismutases," 1975 Annual Review of Biochemistry, p. 147.